Gazette-Journal prevails in lawsuit; public retirement program must turn over information

Dec. 22, 2011

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A Carson City judge signed an order Thursday telling the Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada to release to the Reno Gazette-Journal the names of all retired employees in Nevada and the amount of their benefit.

In his order finding in favor of a suit filed by the newspaper, District Court Judge James Russell said the purpose of the Nevada Public Records Act “is to ensure the accountability of the government to members of the public by facilitating public access to vital information about government activities.”

“Had the Legislature intended that the information requested by the RGJ in this matter be confidential -- it would have so stated,” Russell said in the order. “But it did not.”

In another public records ruling, Judge Russell ordered the State of Nevada to provide the Reno Gazette-Journal with a log containing a description of 98 emails between former Gov. Jim Gibbons and 10 people.

The log must be provided by Jan. 4, 2012, Russell’s order said.

Both rulings were the result of lawsuits filed by the Reno Gazette-Journal under the Nevada Public Records Act, in an effort to hold government and public agencies accountable.

The PERS case followed an investigative report by the newspaper revealing the number of public employees who “double dip” into the state payment system and the retirement system. The newspaper then sought a complete list of retirees and benefits, but PERS declined, so the newspaper sued.

The Gibbons email lawsuit was filed while he still held office. It sought to compel Gibbons to release certain email correspondence sent to a list of people, including friends, political donors and others in 2008.

Gibbons refused the request, saying the emails were either privileged or were not public records. Judge Russell found in his favor.

In response, the newspaper asked for a log of the emails so it could make its own determination of whether the individual emails fell under the public records laws. That also was denied, so the newspaper appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court. Last week, the high court unanimously found in the newspaper’s favor.

“This decision sends a clear message that blanket denials to public information requests go against the grain of our state’s open records law,” said Beryl Love, executive editor of the Gazette-Journal. “I applaud the court for ruling in favor of transparency and government accountability to the public it serves.”

Arguing for the newspaper during a hearing on the PERS case last week before Judge Russell, Reno Gazette-Journal lawyer Scott Glogovac said the law was clear: The names of retired employees, their salary, retirement dates and benefit amounts are part of the public record.

The individual member’s files are confidential, Glogovac said, but the names and numbers are not.

“When you go to work in the public arena, when you’re paid by public money, the public has the right to know how much you’re receiving,” Glogovac said.

Russell agreed.

The judge also challenged claims by PERS officials that producing the information would take an enormous amount of time and money. He agreed with Glogovac that the PERS system should have the ability to conduct database searches that can pull out the information sought by the newspaper.

Now that the order has been signed, the Reno Gazette-Journal will meet with PERS to discuss the process for generating the information that it has been ordered to produce, Glogovac said.